Does Country with Multi-ethnic, Multi-linguistic and Multi-religious Society Induce Tourist Arrivals? Worldwide Evidence

Muzafar Shah Habibullah, Badariah Haji Din () and Siow-Hooi Tan ()
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Badariah Haji Din: School of Government College of Law, Government and International Studies Universiti Utara Malaysia 06010 UUM Sintok, Kedah Malaysia
Siow-Hooi Tan: Faculty of Management Multimedia University Persiaran Multimedia 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor Malaysia

Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, 2018, vol. 52, issue 1, 105-115

Abstract: The tourism sector contributes foreign exchange earnings to the nation; tax revenue to the government; and provide jobs to the population as well as open-up business opportunities to the communities. Thus, international tourist arrivals play a central role in stimulating economic growth by ensuring substantial export income in the form of international tourist expenditures to a destination country. A fundamental question that relates international visitors and the destination country is: “Does diversity play an important role in promoting tourism?†Studies have found that ethno-linguistic diversity affect a country’s tourism competitiveness negatively. This is because high levels of ethnic diversity tend to be associated with low investment, poor governance as a result of poor communication, low collective action and weak cohesion due to differences in ethnic groups’ value system. In this study, using a sample of 126 countries, our results suggest that ethnic, linguistic, and religious fractionalization negatively affected the destination choice of international tourist arrivals. Nevertheless, national income and safety of a country have positive impact on tourist arrivals, but air pollution affects negatively tourist arrivals to a destination country. Some policy implications that would promote tourism are that a country needs to promote and portray multi-racial country that are safe, peoples enjoy diversity in culture and lived in harmony; good facilities and infrastructure related to tourism; and less pollution.

Keywords: cross-country analysis; diversity; tourism demand; tourist arrivals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ukm:jlekon:v:52:y:2018:i:1:p:105-115

DOI: 10.17576/JEM-2018-5201-9

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